The Truth About Online Hotel Reviews: How Trustworthy Are They?

How much can a traveler trust online hotel reviews? What makes these reviews trustworthy – and what would make them not trustworthy? What lies ahead for travel review aggregators like TripAdvisor, Travelocity, Booking.com, Yelp, and Expedia?

Answers to these questions – and more – have been proposed in a newly released infographic published on travel news site Tnooz.

The infographic reveals numbers and truths about online hotel reviews. These include:

A staggering 95 percent of travelers say that reviews are trustworthy. Meanwhile, 78 percent admit that reviews help them feel more confident about their travel decisions (choosing a destination, finding flights and hotels, booking a property, etc.) and 53 percent won’t book a hotel that doesn’t have any reviews.

To some degree, the trust that travelers have on reviews seems to be paying off. 80 percent, in fact, believe that based on the reviews, the hotel they booked actually met their expectations. A further 15 percent believe that the hotel exceeded the expectations that were generated after consulting and tracking online hotel reviews. These numbers can only serve to solidify the value of online review sites, for travel and for other service-based businesses.

Hotel managers and other travel-related business owners should pay careful attention to these next couple of numbers: according to the infographic, 84 percent of travelers say that seeing management respond to reviews (in an appropriate, professional manner) improves their impression of a hotel, while 78 percent feel that the hotel that responds to reviews cares more about their guests than those who do not at all respond to reviews. (Check out: “Best Practices for Responding to Online Reviews”)

Interested to know more? Check out the infographic below:

Infographic credit:

Tnooz

Chris Campbell

Chris is the CEO of ReviewTrackers. He has helped tens of thousands of businesses hear, manage, and respond to what their customers are saying online.